Do Less, Not More When Growing Brands

The secret to creating a strong brand is to leverage and develop the few key points that make you great and focus your message.

---

by Ethan Hausmann

Why do some brands flourish, while others fail? What differentiates the winners from the losers? Is there a surefire way to build a strong brand? The answer is do less, not more.

More is not better
Having more is not always better than having less and doing more is not better than doing less. Too often businesses try to pack as much information as possible into an ad or social post because they think they are "getting the most bang for their buck." Often it just creates confusion instead.

A focused message is much better. The brand is emphasized and how it will improve the life of the user. Don't think of an ad as an opportunity to showcase everything about your product, instead use it as a chance to highlight a single aspect of it.

Time is the enemy
When building a brand, a big limiting factor is time. We only have so much time to develop and grow a brand, especially for larger companies that might have multiple brands. You need to nurture brands, otherwise they will die. Synergy can really help overcome this problem.

Instead of creating separate campaigns for each brand, create joint campaigns involving multiple brands. Play off the various strengths. How does one brand support another? Save your marketing department time by making the comparisons among all your brands easy. People need to know that they work together.

Tell a compelling story
Think of the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Well a compelling story is worth a thousand pages of product specs. Cool new features might be important, but they are meaningless if people don't pay attention.

Your goal is to create a word picture. Move your audience. Draw them in with the story you are shaping. After you have them hooked, then comes the specs. Do less by writing a simple one page story about your brand. It should be easily understood, but impactful.

Make the most of your time and creativity by telling an interesting story about your brands. A story that moves people to action.